When It Comes to Re-Signing, Lin and Fields Have Other Suitors

Houston could offer Jeremy Lin, left, as much as $40 million. Toronto signed Landry Fields to an offer sheet for a three-year deal worth about $20 million.Credit
Left, Richard Perry/The New York Times; Barton Silverman/The New York Times

Knicks fans, to their surprise, watched Jeremy Lin and Landry Fields help push the team over .500 and into the playoffs last season. For 25 games, Lin and Fields were the Knicks’ starting backcourt.

Now it appears the two players, both restricted free agents, may not re-sign with the Knicks.

Lin will visit with the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to discuss signing an offer sheet for a three- or four-year deal. The visit was confirmed Tuesday afternoon through a person involved with the talks.

Earlier Tuesday, Fields reached an agreement on an offer sheet with the Toronto Raptors, a three-year deal worth about $20 million. The Knicks have the right to match the offer.

That deal cannot be completed until next Wednesday, after the end of the N.B.A.’s annual moratorium. Teams are also prohibited from commenting until then.

Chris Emens, Fields’s agent, said that under the deal, Fields would make $5 million and $5.2 million the first two years, with a significant increase in salary the third year.

Houston could offer Lin as much as $40 million, under the Rockets’ cap space.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, no team can offer Lin or Fields more than the league average of $5.3 million for the first two years.

But if Houston is willing to commit that much to Lin, perhaps close to $15 million in the third year, the Knicks could have trouble matching the offer, given their limited future cap space. Already, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler are set to make more than $14 million each in the 2014-15 season.

And the Knicks also want to re-sign the unrestricted free agents Steve Novak and J. R. Smith.

“They are all valuable players, and we’re going to try to keep all four of them,” General Manager Glen Grunwald said last week.

If Lin comes to an agreement with Houston or another team, the Knicks have until July 14 to match the offer. The Knicks can exceed the salary cap, up to $5.3 million the first two years, to re-sign Lin and Fields.

Grunwald made it clear last week that he was going to wait to see Lin’s market value before deciding whether to match offers. Grunwald and the Knicks should have a good idea soon.

Photo

Jeremy Lin, right, and Landry Fields helped push the Knicks over .500 and into the playoffs last season.Credit
Rob Carr/Getty Images

Lin has a brief history with Houston. He spent a week on the Rockets’ roster last season before being waived; at the time, Houston thought it had too many other talented point guards.

That appears to have changed.

The Rockets have two free-agent point guards and are now expecting Goran Dragic, who is an unrestricted free agent, not to re-sign. They have turned their attention to Lin.

Lin averaged 15 points and 6 assists in 35 games with the Knicks last season after the team claimed him off waivers from the Golden State Warriors.

“I think the guard position is something that we have to address,” Grunwald said. “Hopefully, we do that with our own free agents.”

The team will spend the next week making a decision on Fields.

Emens said that management in Toronto believed Fields could be a good addition to a Raptors team that is built on playing an up-tempo style, one that is closer to that of the former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni than to the current coach, Mike Woodson.

“They were aggressive in there pursuit of Landry and the terms of the contract,” Emens said of Toronto. “They see him as a good fit in their system, and that it plays into Landry’s strengths.”

Emens has talked with the Knicks since free agency began last Sunday, but he said he did not know whether the team would match Toronto’s offer.

Last year, Fields averaged 9 points and 4 rebounds a game, numbers that declined from his rookie season.

The offer to Fields could also have an effect on the unrestricted free agent that the Raptors and the Knicks covet most: Steve Nash.

Both teams have met with Nash. The Knicks and the Phoenix Suns were discussing using Fields to obtain Nash in a sign-and-trade deal. But Toronto’s backloaded offer to Fields makes that more difficult.

The Raptors, Dallas and the Nets can offer Nash more money than the Knicks.

A version of this article appears in print on July 4, 2012, on page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: When It Comes to Re-Signing, Lin and Fields Have Other Suitors. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe